In Eckleburg's Eyes - 2/2/2009, Part 1

News & Notes from Friday, January 30th, 2009

-Pictured is the Bailey Educational Complex on the UT campus. It served as my home for the better part of two days. My epic Adult Learning class met from 5:30-9:30 pm on Friday night and 8:30 am-5:30 pm on Saturday night in this building. My classroom is on the top floor.

-In true Adult Education form, the larger class of 21 was broken into small groups at the outset of the class. My group of six (which thankfully included my friend JCP) was given the task of producing a one-day workshop to a hypothetical group of pharmacists discussing bilateral psychothrombosis based upon John Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation. Seeing as how it was hypothetical, I hired an expert with a personal interest, the fictitious Malcolm Knowles Obama (MKO, he renamed himself after his two heroes, adult educator Malcolm Knowles and the president). MKO’s wife's head had imploded (it was an extreme case preceded by her tongue turning blue) while unwrapping Christmas gifts with her children. Our presentation also later included a mascot, Pepper the pill (a big blue pill), and a success story of early bilateral psychothrombosis detection to inspire the pharmacists. This woman’s illness did cause her to blow out her patella and while she can no longer play basketball, she is otherwise okay. My professor, RGB’s response to the presentation, “Oohhh....kay”, was worth it all.

-The most humorous part (to me) of this presentation was the reaction of the two international students in my group, Ya-Ching and Sangmok Jeong. Watching them trying to follow my train of thought during the brainstorming process was quite amusing.

-After the group presentation, the class watched a video of noted Danish educator Knud Illeris’ visit to UT in 2005. The lecture was mercifully edited down to forty minutes by grad student Steve Frye in January 2007. RGB introduced the topic, “His name is Knud (pronounced, ka-nood) Illeris”. The public school teacher next to me instinctively said to know one in particular, “Bless his heart.” (Note: The head of the audience member in the bottom of this photo is the department head’s head.)

-After class, I headed to Subway to get supper and lunch for the next day and then proceeded to MoFoS where JTH was working with NHH. JTH texted me during class to let me know that the store had gotten in a copy of The Lucky Ones, released on DVD on Tuesday. It was crucial that I pick the movie up on Friday night so that I could screen it on Saturday. I realized that if I knew that I could watch Rachel McAdams after class, it would give me the strength to endure the nine hours the next day.

-While at the store, I discovered another movie that the store had never previously carried. Though Two Tickets to Paradise was completed in 2006 and released on DVD last July 22nd, I had never seen it. The film is written and directed by D.B. Sweeney and reunites Sweeney (who also stars) with Moira Kelly. Not familiar with the names? In 1992 they starred in a little cinematic masterpiece known as The Cutting Edge! Naturally, I bought the DVD.